Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/109

 9 th S. I. FEB. 5, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

101

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1898.

CONTENTS.-No. 6.

JOTES : Kipling's Allahabad Books, 101 Ancient Zodiacs, 103 Imported Pictures, 104 Sonnet as Sermon" Red- tape "Declining Engli>h Industries Will of Edmund Akerode "Through obedience learn to command" Motto of Cambridge University, 105 Popular Names " The reason is because " " Lewis Carroll "Major Charles James, 106-Miss M. L. Field, 107.

JUBRIBS: " Crozzil" Dalton Family" Scalinga "Por- traits of Christ Place-Names, 107 Dr. John Radcliffe Schiller's ' Song on the Spanish Armada' Admiral Ben- tow "Parry, Father and Son " Stationer Arms of Berkshire Towns Nicholson Francis Howlyn The late Duke of Kent Huguenot Cruelties Payn Family, 108 Ackerley Nicknames for Colonies Illustrated Works for Children Town Husbands Authors Wanted, 109.

REPLIES: The Chevalier Servandoni Dancing upon Bridges, 109 ' In Memoriam,' liv., 110-Prince Finlegh Supporters ' On a Sunshine Holyday ' " The Bill, the whole Bill," &c., Ill Missing Bible The Porter's Lodge, 112 "Grimthorped" "Prends-moi tel que je suis" Shakspeare's Grandfather, 113 Biographical French Genealogies Todmorden, 114 Robert Burton Watch- men Stamp Collecting Paul of Fossombrone Portrait of Napoleon Local Silversmiths, 115 Motto Mediaeval Lynch Laws. 116 " Crex" Webbe " Tirling-pin " Etchings "Besom," 117.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Waters'* ' Pecorone of Ser Giovanni ' Bodlev's 'France' Hal peYine-Kaminsky's 'Tourgue- neff' ''English Catalogue of Books for 1897' 'Saint George ' ' English Historical Review ' ' Reliquary.'

Notices to Correspondents.

MR. KIPLING'S ALLAHABAD BOOKS :

A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY. A PARAGRAPH in the * Literary Gossip ' of the Athenceum (No. 3660, p. 858) recently drew attention to the high prices which Mr. Rudyard Kipling's Allahabad booklets are now fetching in the London auction-rooms. These little volumes originally formed part of the series issued under the general title of the "Indian Kailway Library" by Messrs. A. H. Wheeler & Co., of Allahabad, and were sold on the railway bookstalls at the price of one rupee each, a sum equivalent in English money to one-and-threepence. They now, as the Athenaeum, points out, find ready pur- chasers at from nine shillings to a guinea apiece. Some of the rarer pieces attain to still higher prices, especially the two volumes that were suppressed ' The City of Dreadful Night ' and ' Letters of Marque.' Of the truth of the Athenaeum's remarks I had a pleasant personal experience. Seeing that a copy of 'The City of Dreadful Night' fetched the sum of 21. 6s. at Sotheby's last May, I looked among my books, and found two copies of the brochure in question, one of which I forth- with sent to Messrs. Sotheby with some other duplicates. I was gratified at receiving

3. 12s. in exchange for the sum of a rupee which I had expended in the original pur- chase of the book at an Indian railway station. This circumstance has led me to think that a correct bibliographical description of these booklets is desirable in the interests of both booksellers and collectors, for it must be remembered that in each case several editions were issued and that it is easy to mistake the different issues. A well-meaning but incomplete attempt at a bibliography* of Mr. Kipling's first editions was published in the New York Book Buyer for November, 1896. There are, unfortunately, several errors in this list, not the least of which is the statement that the grey paper covers are adorned with woodcuts. As a matter of fact, the illustrations on the face and back of the wrappers are lithographs, designed and printed in the Mayo School of Art, Lahore, by the writer's father, Mr. John Lockwood Kipling, C.I.E., the Principal of the School, and his pupils. In the following list I confine myself strictly to the first editions of the several books, which I have described from copies in my own possession :

1. Soldiers Three, | A Collection of Stories | Setting forth certain Passages in the Lives and | Adventures of Privates Terence Mulvaney, | Stan- ley Ortheris, and John Learpyd. | Done into type and edited by | Rudyard Kipling. | " We be Soldiers Three | Pardonnez moy,je vous en prie." \ Allah- abad: | Printed at the "Pioneer" Press. | 1888.

Collation : 12mp. Title as above, on verso "Reprinted in chief from the 'Week's News,'" one leaf; Dedication "To that very strong man, T. Atkins," verso blank, one leaf; Pre- face, verso blank, one leaf; Contents, verso blank, one leaf; pp. 1-98, last page blank ; L'Envoi, verso blank, one leaf; advertise- ments, three leaves, paged to vi.

Issued as No. 1 of A. H. Wheeler & Co.'s " Indian Railway Library " in a greenish-grey wrapper, lettered on face, " Soldiers | Three Rupee." With lithographic sketches on face and back of wrapper.
 * By | Rudyard Kipling [in script] | One

The later editions have 94 pages, "L'Envoi" being printed on p. 94 (unnumbered) instead of on a separate leaf. The title-page merely bears the ascription "By Rudyard Kipling."

2. The | Story of the Gadsbys, | a Tale without a Plot. | By | Rudyard Kipling. | Published by |

Failed,' in its original form as published in Lippin- cott's Magazine as well as in its revised and altered volume form. The omission of the extremely rare * Echoes by Two Writers,' to which attention was drawn in the Athenaeum for 30 Oct., 1897 (No. 3653, p. 601), is more excusable.
 * This list omits, for instance, ' The Light that